TAOS: an automatic system for protein crystallization

TAOS is a fully automatic system for protein crystallization. Based on a central five-axis robot, it performs vapour-diffusion experiments in commercially available plates with three types of drop geometry, i.e. hanging, sitting or sandwich drops. It can handle ten crystallization plates (up to 240 tests) and prepare precipitant solutions from up to ten different components with no operator intervention. Software help in preparing crystallization experiments and full archiving are provided. TAOS has been thoroughly tested for accuracy and reproducibility.